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Importance of nature in american literature
Importance of nature in american literature
Theme of nature in literature
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There is not many a time when men like Stephen Crane come by and take the whole world by surprise. His ideas are not popular for thinkers at the time but very realistic and down to earth. In his time, his short stories were not very prevalent but were read by many people. Stephen Crane found it very difficult to make money off of them and in that way, was inspired to write vigorously even to the point of his death. Stephen Crane craved the attention and support of the people and so gave birth to Naturalism literature. Interestingly, Stephen Crane found his own voice when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage at just twenty years old, and became very famous for the novel. This war novel was followed by a tremendous amount of short stories that had nature as a main theme. Stephen Crane felt nature all around him and felt that, even as a child Methodist, nature is an overwhelming force that should not be meddled with. Stephen Crane’s religious upbringing and life-changing experience led him to incorporate recurring themes of nature in his short stories as seen in The Open Boat.
Stephen Cra...
Though in his short life Stephen Crane was never a soldier, his novel The Red Badge of Courage was commended by Civil War veterans as well as veterans from more recent wars not only for its historical accuracy but its ability to capture the psychological evolution of those on the field of battle (Heizberg xvi). Walt Whitman, on the other hand, served as a field medic during the Civil War. He was exposed perhaps to the most gruesome aspect of the war on a daily basis: the primitive medical techniques, the wounded, the diseased, the dying and the dead. Out of his experiences grew a collection of poems, "Drum Taps" , describing the horrors he had witnessed and that America suffered. As literary artists, a wide chasm of structure and style separates Crane and Whitman. The common cultural experience, the heritage of the Civil War connects them, throwing a bridge across the darkness, allowing them, unilaterally, to dispel notions of glorious battles and heroic honorable deaths. By examining Crane's Henry Fleming and the wound dresser from 'Whitman's poem of the same name, both fundamental literary differences and essential thematic consistencies emerge.
Stephen Crane firmly cemented himself in the canon of American Romanticism with the success of works such as The Red Badge of Courage and "The Blue Hotel." His writing served to probe the fundamental depths of the genre while enumerating on the themes vital to the movement's aesthetic. Such topics as heartfelt reverence for the beauty and ferocity of nature, the general exaltation of emotion over reason and senses over intellect, self-examination of personality and its moods and mental possibilities, a preoccupation with genius and the heroic archetype in general, a focus on passions and inner struggles, and an emphasis on imagination as a gateway to transcendence, as well as a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, and folk culture are all characteristic of his stories.
In John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began, the quote from David Seabury “Courage and convictions are powerful weapons against an enemy that depends upon only fists and guns”, is evident throughout the novel with the character’s various successes. Conviction (willpower) is very strong in the main characters, as the stakes are high with their entire town invaded leaving very few free. This conviction is also essential for courage, which as Ellie explains in the book, can only be found amidst fear. “I guess true courage is when you're really scared but you still do it” p.25. There are various frightening moments in this book, like when the ride on mower was used like a bomb or having to rescue Lee using heavy machinery. These are all moments the characters used their will to survive to propel them to do something that they were terrified to do. The characters also face daunting themes head on despite the previous stress. This is courage, found within conviction, and it has proved to be a good weapon against those with physical weapons.
In the Historical fiction, “The Red Badge of Courage”, written by Stephen Crane; a young man try’s to find courage in himself in the time of war. After watching your commander die in war, would you stay and fight or return home and be a coward? Enlisting Himself into war Henry, to be more than the common man to prove worthyness and bravery. With the sergeant dead will Henry lead his men to victory, or withdraw his men in war. Not being the only are faced with the decision Jim and Wilson Henry’s platoons will have the same decision.
In the short story “ The Open Boat,” by Stephen Crane, Crane does an outstanding job creating descriptive images throughout the entire story. With saying this, Crane uses symbolism along with strong imagery to provide the reader with a fun and exciting story about four guys who 's fight was against nature and themselves. Starting early in the book, Crane creates a story line that has four men in a great amount of trouble in the open waters of the ocean. Going into great detail about natures fierce and powerful body of water, Crane makes it obvious that nature has no empathy for the human race. In this story, Crane shows the continuous fight that the four men have to endure in able to beat natures strongest body of water. It 's not just nature the men have to worry about though, its the ability to work together in order to win this fight against nature. Ultimately, Crane is able to use this story, along with its vast imagery and symbolism to compare the struggle between the human race and all of natures uncertainties.
I have always been interested in war novels and who better to read than Stephen Crane. In Cranes short stories, The Open Boat and The Red Badge of Courage the general themes of realism are portrayed through his vivid writing styles and unique language. The idea of isolation and discovering oneself really relates to my life and reading his short stories not only helped me understand myself, but gain valuable knowledge from his brilliant works. Both The Open Boat and The Red Badge of Courage really reflect Cranes realistic writing, his sense of courage and hope, and survival even in tough situations.
Stephan, Crane. “Works of Stephen Crane: Red Badge Of Courage: Chapters 3 – 5.” MacMillian
Stephen Crane’s short story “The Open Boat” is a story of conflict with nature and the human will and fight to survive. Four men find themselves clinging to life on a small boat amidst a raging sea after being shipwrecked. The four men, the oiler (Billie), the injured captain, the cook, and the correspondent are each in their own way battling the sea as each wave crest threatens to topple the dinghy. “The Open Boat” reflects human nature’s incredible ability to persevere under life-and-death situations, but it also shares a story of tragedy with the death of the oiler. It is human nature to form a brotherhood with fellow sufferers in times of life threatening situations to aid in survival. Weak from hunger and fatigue, the stranded men work together as a community against nature to survive their plight and the merciless waves threatening to overtake the boat. The brotherhood bond shared between the men in “The Open Boat” is evident through the narrator’s perspective, “It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him” (Crane 993). Crane understood first-hand the struggle and the reliance on others having survived the real life shipwreck of the S.S. Commodore off the coast of Florida in 1897. “The Open Boat” is an intriguing read due to Crane’s personal experience and though it is a fictional piece it shares insight into the human mind. Crain did not simply retell a story, but by sharing the struggles with each character he sought to portray the theme of an inner struggle with nature by using the literary devices of personification of nature, symbolism of the boat, and iron...
The Red Badge of Courage is not a war novel. It is a novel about life. This novel illustrates the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Stephen Crane uses the war as a comparison to everyday life. He is semi-saying that life is like a war. It is a struggle of warriors—the every day people—against the odds. In these battles of everyday life, people can change. In The Red Badge of Courage, the main character, Henry Fleming, undergoes a character change that shows how people must overcome their fears and the invisible barriers that hold them back from being the best people—warriors, in the sense that life is war—they can be. Henry has a character change that represents how all humans have general sense of fear of the unknown that must be overcome.
The world of Stephen Crane's fiction is a cruel, lonely place. Man's environment shows no sympathy or concern for man; in the midst of a battle in The Red Badge of Courage "Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment" (89). Crane frequently anthropomorphizes the natural world and turns it into an agent actively working against the survival of man. From the beginning of "The Open Boat" the waves are seen as "wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall" (225) as if the waves themselves had murderous intent. During battle in The Red Badge of Courage the trees of the forest stretched out before Henry and "forbade him to pass. After its previous hostility this new resistance of the forest filled him with a fine bitterness" (104). More omnipresent than the mortal sense of opposition to nature, however, is the mortal sense of opposition to other men. Crane portrays the Darwinian struggle of men as forcing one man against another, not only for the preservation of one's life, but also the preservation of one's sense of self-worth. Henry finds hope for escape from this condition in the traditional notion that "man becomes another thing in a battle"‹more selfless and connected to his comrades (73). But the few moments in Crane's stories where individuals rise above self-preservation are not the typically heroicized moments of battle. Crane revises the sense of the heroic by allowing selfishness to persist through battle. Only when his characters are faced with the absolute helplessness of another human do they rise above themselves. In these grim situations the characters are reminded of their more fundamental opp...
The Red Badge of Courage, by it’s very title, is infested with color imagery and color symbols. While Crane uses color to describe, he also allows it to stand for whole concepts. Gray, for example, describes both the literal image of a dead soldier and Henry Fleming’s vision of the sleeping soldiers as corpses and comes to stand for the idea of death. In the same way, red describes both the soldiers’ physical wounds and Henry’s mental vision of battle. In the process, it gains a symbolic meaning which Crane will put an icon like the ‘red badge of courage’. Stephen Crane uses color in his descriptions of the physical and the non-physical and allows color to take on meanings ranging from the literal to the figurative.
Authors’ Steven Crane and Jack London are known for their stories using naturalism, the struggle between man and nature. Naturalism is like realism, but it explores the forces of nature, heredity, and the environment on human beings, who are faced with the forces of nature. Both “The Open Boat” and “To Build a Fire” demonstrate how inferior and small humans’ really are to nature. Humans cannot control nature or determine its outcome. In both stories nature is the antagonist constantly challenging the humans’ ability to survive. I chose the topic over naturalistic elements because I enjoyed reading these stories. Both stories have a strong since of naturalism in it and both authors’ are known for naturalistic features existing in their writings. In this paper I will give you more of an insight to what naturalism is and what naturalistic elements are present in the two stories listed above.
In 1894, Stephen Crane said, "A man said to the universe: 'Sir, I exist!' 'However,' replied the universe, 'The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.'" This short encounter of man and nature is representative of Crane’s view of nature. However, he did not always see nature as indifferent to man. In 1887, he survived a shipwreck with two other men. "The Open Boat" is his account from an outsider’s point of view of the two days spent in a dinghy. Crane pays special attention to the correspondent, who shares the chore of rowing with the oiler. While rowing, he contemplates his situation and the part that nature plays in it. Mainly through the correspondent’s reflection, Crane shows the power that nature and experience have in expanding people’s ignorant opinions of the world around them.
If it was not for Stephen Crane and his visionary work than American Realism would not have taken hold of the United States during the eighteen hundreds. During the years following the Civil War America was a melting pot of many different writing styles. Many scholars argue that at this time there was still no definite American author or technique. Up to this point authors in the Americas simply copied techniques that were popular in regions of Europe. Stephen Crane came onto the scene with a very different approach to many of his contemporaries. He was a realist, and being such he described actions in a true, unadorned way that portrayed situations in the manner that they actually occurred (Kaplan). He had numerous admired pieces but his most famous work was the Red Badge of Courage (Bentley 103). In this novel he illustrates the accounts of a Union soldier named Henry Fleming. At first the writing was considered too graphic and many people did not buy the book. Eventually the American people changed their opinions and began to gravitate towards Crane’s work. The readers were fascinated by the realistic environment he creates even though he himself had never fought in a war (Bentley 103). By spreading the influence of realistic writing Crane has come to be known as the first American Realist.
Imagine a Veteran of the Civil War reminiscing about the past. The veteran imagines how he was running away during a battle, because he was terrified. The veteran’s name is Henry Fleming. Henry talks about the battle of Chancellorsville and how he was afraid. The Battle of Chancellorsville was understandably terrifying, because it was one of the bloodiest struggles of the civil war (“The Battle: Chancellorsville”). Henry is so terrified, because he thinks that all of the opposing soldiers are shooting at him and only him (Crane). Stephen crane was a realistic writer, creating many books. Even though he did not have war experience at the time, he got his combat experience from the football field (“Stephen Crane”). Crane